Eliyahu Mirlis of New Jersey accuses Rabbi Daniel Greer of repeatedly raping and molesting students at his New Haven yeshiva. Greer is associated with two schools in New Haven.

It takes great courage to do what Mirlis is doing and we praise him for protecting others and exposing a credibly accused child molester. Regardless of the legal outcome, we hope Mirlis feels some comfort and relief by taking action against an alleged predator. We also hope that others with information or suspicions about Greer will summon the strength to call police, prosecutors, therapists, attorneys or support groups like ours so that wrongdoers can be punished, victims can be healed and youngsters can be protected.

In these cases, many feel as though someone who “has done so much good” could not possibly assault a child. That’s a tempting but reckless impulse. Very often those who prey on youngsters are overachievers in nearly every other part of their lives. We must accept the painful reality that child molesters are rarely the social misfits we assume they are. We must understand that often child molesters are among the most gregarious, successful and charming people we know.

No matter what synagogue or school officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in churches, synagogues or other institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Rabbi Daniel Greer — who revived a declining neighborhood and has publicly crusaded against gay rights, prostitution, and coed university dorms — of repeatedly raping and molesting students at his yeshiva at Elm and Norton streets.